Air-traffic strike grounds Ireland-France flights

Aer Rianta has said all flights between Ireland and France have been cancelled today due to a strike by French air traffic controllers…

Aer Rianta has said all flights between Ireland and France have been cancelled today due to a strike by French air traffic controllers.

A spokesperson for Aer Rianta has confirmed 12 outbound and 12 inbound flights to and from Dublin airport have been cancelled and that flights from Cork Airport to France have also been cancelled.

The spokesperson said it was unclear when the industrial action would finish but that as long as there were no air traffic controllers working there would be no French flights.

"As yet we haven’t been given a precise time as to when the strike will finish so it is impossible to say whether there will be flights tomorrow or not," he said.

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Ryanair said yesterday day it had been forced to cancel all its 32 scheduled flights in and out of France during the stoppage.

The strike, which began at 7 p.m. last night and is due to end at 7 a.m. tomorrow, is protesting proposals to standardise air traffic control in the EU. It coincides with a two-day meeting of EU transport ministers that ends today.

In a statement, Ryanair said it had contacted as many as possible of the roughly 3,000 affected passengers. The airline said alternative travel dates would be offered and if these were not suitable it would offer passengers a full refund on the unused sector of their itinerary.

For information, passengers can contact Ryanair at (01) 609 7839, Aer Lingus at (01) 886 8888, or Air France at (01) 844 5633.